DJL44

You are the one who decided to essentially go into the online newspaper business at a time of massive decline in that business. I don't pay for most online newspapers either. You can pay people to create in-depth content, but very few are paying for that elsewhere. People mostly just want a place to shoot the breeze with other fans. I'm not sure if people even read articles anymore, they just want to comment. For most Twins news you would be fine posting a headline and a paragraph long article.

Other teams would not spend more. They have no incentive to do so. A hard cap would mean player salaries are depressed and the cheapskate teams can get players cheaper.

Actually, they'll be getting an above average 3B. They're going to pay $50M this season to upgrade from Eduardo Escobar to Correa at 3B, That's only a 3-4 win upgrade. They're turning the best SS in baseball into the 5th best 3B.

Endorsement opportunities in NY will total a lot more than in MN. Correa was not interested in returning to this mediocre franchise with mediocre goals.

I come here mainly to shoot the breeze. I don't make any money following the Twins.

It should. Who wouldn't want Correa at a $65M discount?

Which assumes you have cell phone coverage everywhere you are driving.

On that list the players who get enough votes to be considered serious candidates are David Ortiz, Ben Taylor, Vic Willis, and Phil Rizzuto. Nobody else is likely to get elected any time soon. Top 12 unelected players in the last election: Lance Berkman, Buddy Bell, Thurman Munson, Sal Bando, Bobby Bonds, David Ortiz, Ben Taylor, Vic Willis, Bob Johnson, Tommy John, Wally Schang and Tim Hudson. We'll elect 3 more players this year. Carlos Beltran is a lock, then one of those top finishers from last year.

In a Future Filled With Electric Cars, AM Radio May Be Left Behind - The New York Times (nytimes.com) Most electric car manufacturers have removed support for AM radio rather than shielding the radio from the electromagnetic interference generated by electric motors. If radios aren't shielded from the electric motor the AM signal is unlistenable due to static. Many cities, but not all, have an alternate FM station to listen to but there are no clear channel superstations (like 830 in Minneapolis) on the FM dial. This could spell the end of Twins baseball on the AM dial very shortly. I'll often schedule a long trip to coincide with a Twins game so I have something to listen to in the car.

Here's the list of players in the Hall of Merit but not in the Hall of Fame Allen, Dick Clark, Will Hernandez, Keith McGwire, Mark Palmeiro, Rafael Start, Joe Stovey, Harry Barnes, Ross Childs, Cupid Grich, Bobby Randolph, Willie Whitaker, Lou Richardson, Hardy Boyer, Ken Evans, Darrell Groh, Heinie Hack, Stan Nettles, Graig Sutton, Ezra Beckwith, John Bennett, Charlie Freehan, Bill Trouppe, Quincy Edmonds, Jim Gore, George Hines, Paul Oms, Alejandro Pike, Lip Wynn, Jimmy McVey, Cal Bonds, Barry Jackson, Joe Jones, Charley Keller, Charlie Magee, Sherry Ramirez, Manny Sheckard, Jimmy Brown, Kevin Caruthers, Bob Clemens, Roger Cone, David Ferrell, Wes Pierce, Billy Reuschel, Rick Saberhagen, Bret Schilling, Curt Stieb, Dave Browning, Pete Evans, Dwight Sheffield, Gary Smith, Reggie Dahlen, Bill Glasscock, Jack Lundy, Dick Moore, Dobie Pearce, Dickey Rose, Pete Rolen, Scott Redding, Dick Tiant, Luis Jones, Andruw Helton, Todd Lofton, Kenny Santana, Johan Kent, Jeff Sosa, Sammy Pettitte, Andy Abreu, Bobby Rodriguez, Alex

Players are perpetually eligible so they could get elected in future elections. Here is the list of players who are in the Hall of Fame but not the Hall of Merit. Bottomley, Jim Cepeda, Orlando Chance, Frank Hodges, Gil Kelly, George McGriff, Fred Perez, Tony Taylor, Ben Evers, Johnny Lazzeri, Tony Mazeroski, Bill Schoendienst, Red Dandridge, Ray Johnson, Judy Kell, George Lindstrom, Freddy Traynor, Pie Ferrell, Rick Lombardi, Ernie Schalk, Ray Combs, Earle Duffy, Hugh Puckett, Kirby Waner, Lloyd Wilson, Hack Baines, Harold White, Sol Brock, Lou Hafey, Chick Manush, Heinie Bender, Chief Chesbro, Jack Cooper, Andy Day, Leon Dean, Dizzy Gomez, Lefty Grimes, Burleigh Haines, Jesse Hoffman, Trevor Hoyt, Waite Hunter, Catfish Joss, Addie Kaat, Jim Marquard, Rube Morris, Jack Pennock, Herb Smith, Hilton Smith, Lee Sutter, Bruce Welch, Mickey Willis, Vic Cuyler, Kiki Hooper, Harry Klein, Chuck McCarthy, Tommy Oliva, Tony Rice, Jim Rice, Sam Youngs, Ross Aparicio, Luis Bancroft, Dave Jackson, Travis Maranville, Rabbit Rizzuto, Phil Tinker, Joe

There is one more member of the 2020 Reds who is an ace pitcher and very available. I don't think the Twins should be interested in Trevor Bauer but he's very obtainable.

The Twins could use 2 more relief pitchers. They will have 2 spots on the roster open up when spring training starts - Paddack and Canterino. That means they will need to sign the pitchers to "minor league" deals that pay very well if they pitcher is added to the MLB roster. They shouldn't limit their search to pitchers who worked out of the bullpen last year. There are some 5th starters available who might do well if you put them into the bullpen. Here is an article that ranks the pitchers by their statcast stuff. Adam Ottavino is one of the better ones - he's playing in the WBC. Matt Moore and Aroldis Chapman also get mentioned. Here's another article showing what might be available on a minor league deal. Carlos Estevez and Chris Martin get mentioned there.

I don't think they have enough roster space to add $24M worth of relief pitchers to the payroll. That would be nearly a whole new bullpen.

I help run the Hall of Merit so I have a lot of opinions about this. Here's a link to the website Baseball Think Factory Hall Of Merit (krisgardner6.wixsite.com)

Only the Twins Hall of Fame. Still a pretty good ball to have.

I also thought Andrelton Simmons was a good fit. He was not.

I didn't think Arraez was going to keep his batting average elite when he got to the big leagues. I thought being slow and lacking power would make it easier for big leaguers to get him out.

The Twins have drafted and developed fairly well so far. They were able to turn a recent draft into trade bait that brought in several veterans currently on the roster. It's not an organizational weakness. I do wonder why, if they think they're good at developing pitching, they don't draft more pitchers. Half the active roster is pitching and more than half of the players used in a season will be pitchers. Pitchers are also more likely to get injured and flame out. Pitchers are the favored currency for trades. This front office refuses to use free agency to bring in pitching talent. If I was drafting I'd probably go as high as 14 pitchers in the first 20 rounds. In 2022 they drafted 9 pitchers in the first 20 rounds. 2021 `10/20 (one didn't sign). 2020 1/4. 2019 12/20 but only one in the first 7 rounds. 2018 9/20. They've also been starving the pitching pipeline by failing to obtain any international free agent pitching talent. In the last 10 years it's basically one pitcher: Brusdar Graterol.

I'll put it another way. If we don't believe Larnach can play as well as he did last season then they missed their opportunity and should have traded him 3 years ago. I think he's going to be better than he was last season. Joey Gallo can't make the team much better than they were last year. They spent resources on a minor upgrade while leaving gaping holes elsewhere. Now they pretty much have to trade one of Kepler, Larnach or Kirilloff or they will have wasted one of their seasons of team control.

Larnach was better last year (104 OPS+ vs 79 OPS+) and is aging into his prime so there is some upside. Gallo is past his prime and unlikely to improve on his career numbers. If you're going to predict future performance, you should heavily weight the previous season's performance. Larnach is not a bad fielder so Gallo doesn't make up much there either, not that LF get that many chances anyway. Of course, Larnach isn't the only option. Gallo has to be better than most of the other outfield options to be worth signing. If he's the 3rd most productive corner OF for the Twins what is the point? This team can't afford to spend $11M on a 4th outfielder when they don't have enough pitching.

It's a useful construct but in this case it has a huge flaw, namely that the Twins have 4 other lefthanded hitting oufielders who are about average in WAR. How many wins above Trevor Larnach will Gallo produce in 2023? I'm guessing zero since Larnach has a good chance of being the better player. Spend $11M and pick up a player who is no better than 4 other guys they already have. That's only worth anything if they trade their surplus of lefthanded hitting outfielders for something they actually need.

That team I'd buy tickets to see. Especially since the tickets are cheaper.

Raid the Cardinals front office.

Sounds like the prototypical Twins starting pitcher. I'm sure he's next. A Jean Segura signing will round out the offseason.